PTI Bhubaneswar: With NTPC’s power generation plant producing about one-third of its capacity due to lack of coal supply in wake of the violence in the Talcher coalfields here, efforts are on to resume power production in the central sector.

“We are trying to resume supply of coal to NTPC from Lingaraj and Kanhia coallieries as soon as possible”, sub-collector Saroj Samal said.

As coal supply came to a grinding halt, the central PSU could generate only 1100 MW power against its capacity of 3,000 MW. Only 1100 MW power could be generated from three units of NTPC at Kanhia which has six units of 500 MW capacity each. Generally, 3000 MW of electricity is being produced at NTPC’s Kanhia units.

The drastic fall in generation had its bearing in the states purchasing power from NTPC as four southern states – Andhra Pradesh, Tamilnadu, Karnataka and Kerala – failed to get supply for last four days, official sources said.

However, Odisha could manage with the supply as it was not getting 250 MW of 512 MW power it procured from NTPC.

However, the power generation has not been much affected at Nalco’s power plant and at Talcher Thermal Power Station (TTPS) at Talcher which produced 1200 MW and 470 MW respectively.

Generation in NTPC was severely affected as it needed atleast 55,000 metric tonnes of coal daily for making the plant fully operational, they said.

Besides, the clash had its bearing on the economy of the railways as it lost Rs six crore everyday towards transportation charges for ferrying about 1.5 lakh metric tonne coal through 30 railway rakes.